FIRST STEPS TOWARD SPACE - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

NUMBER 10 273
conclusions, which were not yet mature in every
detail and were sometimes even naive, Kondratyuk
developed the views expressed in his book "Conquest
of Interplanetary Spaces," published 10 years
later (1929).
The first version of Kondratyuk's manuscript on
interplanetary travel (as yet unpublished) 8 is in the
form of preliminary notes and cannot be considered
a complete work. In these notes, written in the form
of a diary wherein the author is sometimes in error,
he argues with himself, and in a number of cases rewrites
and re-calculates separate sections of his
work. However, even in the early notes, a number
of interesting statements can be encountered.
Like Tsiolkovskiy, Kondratyuk first of all endeavored
to find out whether one could make an
interplanetary flight by a reactive device, using currently
available materials. Having completed the
calculations, he derived independently and in a
different way Tsiolkovskiy's basic equation for
rocket flight.
Having been convinced that flight by rocket was
in principle possible, Kondratyuk started refining
a number of problems associated with flight in
outer space. In his first manuscript he considered
the effect of gravitation and resistance of the
environment, acceleration and launching methods,
arrangement of various parts of the spacecraft, its
controllability and stability, conditions of flights
within the solar system, creation of intermediate
interplanetary bases, etc. And he made a number
of proposals which are of considerable interest
even today, with due regard to present achievements
in cosmonautics. In particular, the sequence
of first steps in conquering outer space that Kondratyuk
presented in his manuscript undoubtedly
deserves our attention. He envisaged the following
(from page 25 of the first version): (1) to test out
the operation of the equipment for ascent in the
atmosphere; (2) flight to near-Ear th distances for
several thousands of versts; (3) flight to the Moon
without landing, i.e., a circumlunar flight; (4)
flight to the Moon with landing thereon.
Of considerable interest is his method of sending
an expedition to the Moon and to other celestial
bodies. He clearly understood that the amount of
energy required for landing and subsequent takeoff
from some celestial body, is directly proportional
to the mass of the spacecraft. Therefore, he proposed,
when arranging a flight to some celestial
body (e.g., the Moon), first to place the spacecraft
into lunar orbit, with the subsequent separation of
a special bay which should alight on the Moon.
In the section "The Theory of Landings" (page
18 of the first version of his manuscript) Kondratyuk
wrote:
Landing on some other celestial body in no way differs from
a takeoff and landing on the Earth, except for the magnitude
and the potential. In order to avoid too much consumption
of the active substance [fuel, as opposed to "non-active part,"
the spacecraft without fuel], it is possible not to land the
whole rocket, but only to reduce its velocity to such a degree
that it would revolve uniformly around and as near as
possible to the body on which landing must be made. Then,
the non-active part should be detached with such an amount
of active substance needed for the non-active part to make
a landing and subsequently to return to the rest of the
rocket.
He formulated this more distinctly on page 126
of the second version of the manuscript, wherein
he wrote:
For landing on some planet, it is necessary to multiply the
ratio for takeoff from and return to the Earth by the respective
ratio for the other planet. Therefore, it is more advantageous
not to land the whole rocket on the other planet,
but to turn it into a satellite [around the planet], while the
landing should be made with such part of the rocket as is
required to land on the planet and to return back and join
the rocket.
The second version of Kondratyuk's manuscript,
which is a refinement of the previous work, differs
from the first in being a more systematized and
detailed presentation. Also, several new sections
were included in the second version, such as "Active
Substance and its Combustion," "Orientation
Instruments,'' "Acceleration Indicator," "Shape of
the Rocket to Provide for Atmospheric Landing
and Landing Control," "Utilization of the Relative
Motions of Celestial Bodies," "Electric Gun," etc. 9
Kondratyuk's manuscripts of this period are
characterized by a great number of spectacular and
interesting ideas not quite comprehensively developed
from the technical point of view. Among
them are his proposals of jettisoning the unnecessary
passive parts of the rocket mass, creation of
electric rockets (see Figure 7) and nuclear engines,
use of solar energy, utilization of the Earth's atmosphere
during re-entry, creating some intermediate
bases in the form of an artificial lunar satellite,
using gravitational fields and the relative motions
of celestial bodies, etc.
In evaluating the early works of Kondratyuk